How to Handle Resignations

We've had our first resignations... here's how I'm feeling and what I'm doing.

Sooner or later, it's almost inevitable that some of your team members might be tempted by other opportunities to develop their careers away from you and your business. It's just a normal part of running a business with a team.

But when I got the message a few weeks ago saying one of our team members had resigned, it provoked a whole set of feelings.

It doesn't matter how normal everyone says it is that team members will move on from time to time, for me at least it's prompted a ton of feelings. Everything from why would they want to leave to whether there's more we should have done to prevent it.

What I've realized over the past few weeks is that while it is frustrating when a valued team member leaves, there's much that can be gained at the same time.

Here's what I'm doing with my team to make the best out of the situation.

Accept that people leaving is normal, just so long as it's not too quickly or too often

Days of careers for life are long gone. It's inevitable that team members will leave for various reasons, but it's important to ensure they don't leave quickly and often. If either of those things is true then that might point to issues preventing you from having the retention that you really want, so you can build your business around team members that are really committed to you and your business for the long term. In our case, they've been with us for over a year, and while it's earlier than I'd like them to be leaving, it's not like they've left after just a few months.

Understand why they're leaving

Before jumping into making any large changes, take the time to really understand why they're leaving. This is key for decisions around how to replace them and taking steps to ensure the rest of your team is happy too. We're not waiting for the exit interview to understand this, we're having open conversations and seeking thoughts and feedback to help us straight away.

Set clear expectations for the notice period

Many years ago I was told that you should leave an organisation the same way you joined. Full of energy, positivity, and commitment, right through to the end. This is no different for us and I'm pleased that this is exactly what we've seen from the team member that's leaving us shortly. We talked openly about the notice period and how it's "work as normal" for the duration of the notice period.

Have an exit interview - learn from those that are leaving

When someone leaves it's a great opportunity to get open and honest feedback from them as well as suggestions on things to improve. We do regular 121s with every team member but with an exit interview, there's a chance for them to be even more open than normal and perhaps share things they might otherwise be hesitant to talk about. In our exit interviews, we take the chance to gain feedback on the company and suggestions for how we could have supported them better and what they feel we could do differently moving forward.

Take the opportunity to review the role and make changes

When someone leaves your team, it offers you a chance to review things before deciding on how to replace them. The work someone does within a role often changes over time so when someone leaves, it's a great chance to review what they've been doing and whether you want to make any changes before hiring someone to take on the work they've been doing.

As large tech companies are laying off large numbers of people at the moment, it's showing that there are lots of roles that simply aren't required and make little difference to the overall business when people leave. That's unlikely to be the case in businesses of our size but it's still worth reviewing whether all the tasks are still required.

We're taking the chance to make some structural changes that will help us increase the responsibility we give to our existing team members and hire more senior team members as part of our continual 'raising the bar' style of hiring. This is inspired by Amazon's hiring approach where they look for every new team member to be increasing standards across the team.

Don't forget to wish them well!

No matter how you feel personally about a team member leaving don't forget to wish them well. We're a big fans of the celebration cards that we do for birthdays and work anniversaries and someone leaving is no different. We do a group card using sendwishonline.com with messages from all of the team and send it to them on their last day.

Finally..... get help to figure out how best to hire your new team member Whether you're clear on what role you need to replace the person who is leaving or if you'd like some help to figure out who you really need, then we can help. Reach out to me here directly, or email me at [email protected]